I am new to the site and was wondering how big badminton is in America? Is the sport becoming more popular? I started playing about three years ago and quickly realised that badminton is dying in England. Every year clubs are folding and older people tell me the standard of players are also dropping. This has completely gutted me because I have grown to love the sport and want to be able to play for years yet. Good website though!
Badminton is SORT of big here in USA. But the problem is that there is no televising of the sport and high schools and districts could care less about badminton. I know of one school (James Logan High) in Union City of California and the badminton team receives NO funding at all. The coach has to shell out money for themselves and the players has to raise money to pay him back. They don't get top priority and they are the last. I'll also tell you another thing. Yesterday while driving home, my friend encountered a previous member of our badminton team. He yelled across the cars and asked if he still played badminton. Then out of nowhere, this guy in a semi-monster starting laughing really loud and shouted "Badminton!" and cracked up even more. Then I yelled at him and said, "We'll play you anytime man..ANYTIME!" His then cracking up face became a serious one...at least that shutted him up. Most Americans think this is a backyard sport. But when we play some of them in school, we take them out like nothing.
In my experience, everyone who sees the game played competitively respects it, even if they've never seen a good badminton game before. the problem, as all of us have repeated every time this topic starts, is getting the general public exposed to good badminton.
Tony, the good players play in clubs. There is of course the drawback of money, but in the long run you can play whenever you want and against really good players. Join a private club, or ask to play there one night, you'd be hooked or you'll be scared of the talent that might be there.
Mark, look at the similar topic posted recently by Olli and the responses. Tony's remarks about the sports' lack of respect applies throughout the entire US, but his beginning comments about its popularity probably apply only to California (where Tony attends high school), where the sport seems to be more popular.
You're right Brett. In Canada, it seems mostly centred in the western provinces, of B.C. and Alberta, and in the eastern provinces of Quebec, and Ontario. I don't ever hear of anyone in the middle of the praries playing badminton... I'd imagine all the giant hail stones would break right through the ceiling of the private clubs, and smash the players to death.
Thankyou for the replies and the link to Olli's topic. It was very interesting to see that the situation is similar to England i.e. no money, no coverage, not taught properly in schools, etc.
Mark, it can't be as bad in the U.K. as it is in the U.S. unless things have changed dramatically since I was last there in 1992. Practically any reasonable sized sporting goods store had at least six or eight choices of badminton racquets, unlike in the U.S., where in my state, which is at least as big as England, there are two, possibly three retail stores in the state that sell quality badminton racquets (entry level racquets only). I wouldn't be surprised if there are as many badminton clubs in your country as in the states.
did you all know that up the 80'S england, canada , sweden and New Zealand were world forces in badminton, USA in the 50's , and Thailand and India in 50's and 60's. If you think support is bad in your place, wait till you find out what Gopichand and Prakash had to go through in India, I think they even have to make their own shuttles.
Americans...I mean Pilgrims and African Americans...are not fast enough for badminton. They are mostly fatasses and lazy-asses. Maybe hitting a golf ball and walk after it and hit it again and walk after it is ok with them or swinging a peace of log and missing the darn baseball 9 times out of 10 is good enough for them. but badminton requires too much physicals, I am afraid America is not a country with so much interest in the sport.
birdbrain, i'm surprise to hear that considering that india is the real birthplace of badminton and adjacent to badminton countries like china, malaysia, indonesai
Hoang, would it be (a) fair and (b) correct for me to conclude, by the spelling of your last name, that you are (or your ancestry is) Vietnamese? If so, could you please describe for me the current state of Vietnamese badminton? Please list all of the Olympic badminton medal winners that Vietnam has fielded in the past several decades. I will agree with you that many Americans are not athletic and that badminton is not popular here. Ironically, one of the main reasons that the sport is not popular in the US is because most Americans incorrectly view it as being too wimpy and easy to be a real sport.
